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SERMON OUTLINESERMON TITLE:The Sweetest Fellowship This Side of HeavenSERMON REFERENCE:1 John 1:1-4LWF SERMON NUMBER:#2099We are grateful for the opportunity to provide this outline producedfrom a sermon preached by Adrian Rogers while serving aspastor of Bellevue Baptist Church in Memphis, Tennessee.This outline is intended for your personal, non-commercial use.In order to ensure our ability to be good stewards of Adrian Rogers’ messages,Love Worth Finding has reserved all rights to this content.Except for your personal, non-commercial use and except for brief quotationsin printed reviews, no part of this publication may be reproduced,stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means—electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, or any other—without the prior permission of the publisher.Copyright ?2021 Love Worth Finding Ministries, Inc.INTRODUCTIONThe theme of 1 John is fellowship.John wrote five books of the Bible:The Gospel of JohnThe purpose of this book is to lead us to faith in Christ.RevelationThe purpose of this book is to comfort saints, to help us understand the days in which we’re living, and to give us a hope for the second coming of the Lord Jesus.The epistles of 1 John, 2 John and 3 JohnThese were written to confirm saints.The theme for 1 John are the words “know,” “fellowship” and “life.”1 John 1:1-4This fellowship comes through the life that we have with the Lord Jesus Christ.People can exist and not have life.1 Timothy 5:6This speaks of an unsaved woman.John 10:10In this passage, Jesus was speaking to people whose hearts were beating, but He said that they did not have life.They had an existence.They did not have life that is full and free in the Lord Jesus Christ.Man is a spirit; and being spiritual, we need not just existence but life through the Spirit in the Lord Jesus Christ.Many people today are living life backward.Rather than glorious, their lives are evil because they do not know the Lord Jesus Christ as their personal Savior and Lord.In order to experience and enjoy this life that is full and free, the Apostle John shows us three specific things found in our Scripture today.a fact established (1 John 1:1)1 John 1:1The devil always wants to distort and deny truth.The greatest truth is the truth about the Lord Jesus Christ.The devil has been trying to confuse people as to who the Lord Jesus is, was and always will be.In John’s day, there was a false cult known as the Gnostics.The Greek word “gnosis” means “to know.”Gnostics felt that they had superior knowledge.They believed that anything physical or material was evil, so they believed that the true Messiah could not have had a material, physical body.They believed that the Jesus who was here on Earth was sort of a phantom and not real.John is going to show that Jesus Christ literally, physically, bodily walked here on this Earth, and he said that he was an eyewitness to that.There are still false cults today, and almost every false cult is wrong primarily about Jesus Christ.If they are wrong about Jesus, it doesn’t matter what they’re right about.Jesus is God in human flesh.Jesus is co-equal and co-eternal with Almighty God.2 John 1:102 John 1:9If a person is wrong about Jesus, then he doesn’t know God.John 14:6Jesus is an eternal fact.1 John 1:1He is the Christ of the eternities.John 1:1Before anything began, Jesus was there.“The Word” is God’s name for Jesus.Revelation 19:13Jesus is called in this verse the “Word of God”.1 John 1:1Jesus is called the “Word of life.”A “word” is the expression of an invisible thought or an idea.Jesus is the visible expression of the invisible God.Jesus is God’s first word.He was there in the beginning.John 1:1Jesus is God’s full word.Revelation 1:8Alpha and omega are the first and last letters of the Greek alphabet.Jesus is God’s alphabet; anything that God is going to say, He’s going to say through Jesus and by Jesus.Jesus is God’s final word.Hebrews 1:2When we’ve said “Jesus,” we’ve said it all.You can’t say anymore and don’t need to say anymore.All of the revelation of God is wrapped up in the Lord Jesus Christ.Jesus is a physical fact.1 John 1:1There was audible evidence.John said that they heard Him.There was visible evidence.John said that they saw Him.1 John 1:1The word used for “looked upon” in this passage is the word we get our word “theater” from, which means “to look carefully.”John was with Jesus for three years, and he watched Jesus.There was physical evidence.1 John 1:1They touched Jesus.Jesus Christ was in human form.He was born of a virgin, and He was as much a man as if He were not God at all.It is as much a heresy to deny the humanity of Jesus as it is to deny the deity of Jesus.He was God.He wasn’t half God and half man.He wasn’t all God and no man.He wasn’t all man and no God.He was the God-man.If we deny the humanity of the Lord Jesus Christ, then we’re denying Christianity.Apart from His humanity, we could not be saved.He became a man to die on the cross.Apart from the shedding of blood, there is no remission of sins.Apart from His humanity, we have no example.We cannot follow as an example the God in the glory because we’re human.But we can walk as Jesus walked.Every miracle that He did, He did not as God would do, but He did the miracle as man filled with the Holy Spirit would do the miracle.All of the life that He lived, He lived as a man; and He depended upon the same power that we can depend upon.He’s our Redeemer because He’s a man.He’s our example because He’s a man.He’s our comforter because He’s a man. Hebrews 4:15Jesus is a spiritual fact.1 John 1:1-2The Apostle John states that he tells us what he saw so that we can believe.The Lord Jesus is not here now in a physical body, but the Holy Spirit of God reveals Him.As the Apostle John heard Him, faith now becomes the ear of the soul.As the Apostle John saw Him, faith now becomes the eye of the soul.We can know the Lord Jesus through the Spirit.1 John 5:9God sends the Holy Spirit to testify to the words of the apostles, and we have the words of the apostles.We are not dependent upon oratory, illustration or logic to convince someone.The Holy Spirit of God is here to testify that what John said is true.That is the witness of God.The Holy Spirit of God testifies unto the Lord Jesus Christ.a fellowship experienced (1 John 1:2-3)1 John 1:2-3John wants to share it.Anyone who sees it, hears it and knows it wants to share it.This is why we’re called witnesses and not lawyers.A lawyer argues a case; a witness tells what he has seen and heard.The only person who can’t witness is the person who hasn’t seen or heard anything.What is fellowship?It is not coffee and donuts.1 John 1:3The word “fellowship” is the Greek word “koinonia,” which means “to hold things in common.”Because of the established fact of Jesus, there is fellowship that is experienced.We can have fellowship with one another.We have fellowship with the Father and with His Son, Jesus Christ.We have nothing in common with the Father.He is holy; we are unholy.1 John 1:5-6There is a great chasm between us and Almighty God.God sent the Lord Jesus Christ to take something that is common between us: human flesh.Jesus became a man and never discarded His deity.Jesus took on the nature of man that we might take on the nature of God.2 Peter 1:4The word “partakers” here is the same word that is translated “fellowship” in 1 John 1:3.We have fellowship with God through the Lord Jesus Christ.Not only do we have fellowship with God, but we have fellowship with one another.When we are born of God, we share the same nature; and the Jesus in me will love the Jesus in you.Philippians 1:5Philippians 2:1The Bible teaches that a Christian is not to marry an unsaved person.2 Corinthians 6:14A twice-born person is a child of God, and a person who is not twice-born is a child of Satan.There is no fellowship and no common life.The Christian wants to go to church on Sunday, but the unsaved person wants to sleep in on Sunday.The saved person wants to give, but the unsaved person doesn’t want to give.The saved person wants to make Sunday a holy day, but the unsaved person wants to make it a holiday.Christians want to pray when a crisis comes, but a pagan ridicules prayer.The Christian wants their children to be taught the things of God, but the unsaved person doesn’t care.At some point the Christian spouse will begin acting like the unsaved spouse rather than the unsaved spouse acting like the Christian.Ecclesiastes 4:12We should never marry a person in order to reform them.Don’t ever date a person whom you would not marry.When we have the nature of God in us and we are born of the Spirit and partakers of the divine nature, then we are to seek out for a life partner someone who also has the same koinonia, that same fellowship with the Father and, therefore, with us.What holds our churches together is Jesus.The Jesus in me will love the Jesus in you.When we love Jesus, we are going to love one another.a fullness enjoyed (1 John 1:4)1 John 1:4There is no joy like the joy of knowing one another in the Lord Jesus Christ.Everyone wants joy.John said that he wrote this book that we might have joy.1 John 1:4We can look all over for joy, but we won’t find joy until we find it in the Lord Jesus Christ.Joy is the byproduct of fellowship with God and fellowship with the family of Christ.Psalm 16:11Sin promises joy, but it never delivers it.Today, we have more entertainment, amusements, restaurants, etc.; yet, there is more loneliness, depression, alcoholism, drugs, divorce and suicide than ever before.True joy is only found in the Lord Jesus Christ.Joy and happiness are not the same thing.Happiness depends upon what happens.Joy depends upon the Lord. Philippians 4:4If you live for happiness, then you’re a prisoner of circumstances.If circumstances change, then you’re no longer happy.But Jesus never changes.Happiness is cosmetic.It’s on the outside.Joy is character.It’s on the inside.Happiness only meets your surface needs, but joy meets your deepest needs.Happiness is like a thermometer that registers conditions.Joy is the thermostat that controls the conditions.Happiness evaporates in a crisis; but joy, often, intensifies in a crisis.Happiness is at its fullest when it is mingled with joy, when you know the joy of the Lord.In the life of the believer, there is a fullness of joy.1 Peter 1:8CONCLUSIONJesus is the Word of God.He is speaking today because He loves you.He is the Word of life.It is the life that you need.1 John 1:4The Apostle John wrote these things that we might have fullness of joy.To know God and to know our brothers and sisters in Christ is fullness of joy.Have you received Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior?Do you know Jesus personally? If not, you can pray to Him today by asking Him to come into your life.Call upon Jesus today. Repent (turn) from your sins, and turn to Jesus. Ask Him to forgive you of your sins, and acknowledge Him as Lord of your life.Romans 3:23Romans 10:9-10Romans 10:13Acts 16:31John 3:16 ................
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